Rockford-area Catholics welcome Pope Francis’ comments

Saturday

Sep 28, 2013 at 12:01 AMSep 28, 2013 at 4:02 PM

ROCKFORD — Pope Francis has people talking. Since the pontiff’s interview published last week in 16 Jesuit journals worldwide, Catholics have engaged in discussion of his comments on abortion, marriage and contraception.

Dorothy Schneider

ROCKFORD — Pope Francis has people talking.

Since the pontiff’s interview published last week in 16 Jesuit journals worldwide, Catholics have engaged in discussion of his comments on abortion, marriage and contraception.

“That in and of itself is a huge opportunity,” said Julie Schwartz, director of religious education at Holy Family Church in Rockford. “There’s nothing different in what he’s saying, which is, love is the central message of the Gospel.

“But what he’s doing is, creating an opportunity for the dialogue to happen in schools, in churches and elsewhere.”

Francis, who began his papacy in March, wants the church to spend less time focusing on “small-minded rules” and controversial issues.

“We have to find a new balance,” he said.

Some have picked up on the comments as a prelude to potential change, even if it’s down the road, in the church’s stances on abortion and gay marriage, among others. But Rockford-area catechists say that’s not what Francis was indicating.

“A lot of people hear what they want to hear,” said John McGrath, director of faith education for the Rockford Diocese, which covers 11 counties in northern Illinois.

“He’s not compromising on anything Catholics believe in at all but simply urging Catholics to be warm and accepting of people who are in disagreement with the church.”

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the pope’s words were welcome. But he, too, said there’s no signal of a change in doctrine.

“He’s captured the world’s imagination,” Dolan said after Mass at St. Patrick Cathedral in New York this weekend. “Like Jesus, he’s always saying ‘Hate the sin, love the sinner’.”

McGrath agrees with the message encouraging those in the faith to be less punitive and judgmental.
“Pope Francis is very blunt,” said the Rev. Ken Anderson, pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Freeport.

“He really takes on the radical nature of the Gospel, and that sometimes sets people back a bit. What I think he’s asking people to do is, take a hard look at what we believe and the words we say and how we say it.”

The Catholic Church opposes abortion, and that will not change, Anderson said. What Francis reminds us is that “pro-life” means exactly that — all life is to be treated with dignity and respect.

Schwartz and Loretta Reif, a longtime Catholic and a parishioner at St. James in Rockford, called Francis a “breath of fresh air.”

“I’m just thrilled,” Reif said. “I really feel we’re headed in the direction that the Gospel teaches … of helping out the poor and being among the people and for the people.”

“Pope John Paul II taught us what the church teaches, Pope Emeritus Benedict taught us why the church teaches what she teaches, and now Pope Francis is helping us understand how to live what we’re being taught.

“It’s coming from a different perspective, but it’s all the same teaching.”